Australian childrenswear retailer, Cotton On Kids, will open its biggest flagship store in the world at New Zealand’s high profile shopping centre Sylvia Park this month, in line with a new store concept rollout.
The retailer announced the new store, which will be 432sqm in size, will encourage creativity and highlight the breadth of the fashion chain’s childrenswear offering.
The Sylvia Park Cotton On Kids store, the first store in New Zealand to offer the brand’s full product assortment and will feature girls’ and boys’ apparel, baby apparel, sleepwear, bedroom linen and accessories.
“There’s plenty of retail to be done overseas, but equally some exciting opportunities to expand and refresh our offering across Australia and New Zealand — not only via footprint growth and expanding our Flagship offering, but through the new and unique ways we engage our customer,” said Danielle Harris, Cotton On Kids global GM of retail.
“Everything we do and create is with families in mind; we know our customers love to be surprised and we will continue to deliver interactive experiences to them. The new store format allows us to showcase our full product assortment, offer greater engagement and fun at every touch point,” she added.
The new store will have digital screen animations; a play table and chairs for drawing; a play hut complete with TV and the opportunity for kids to ‘transform’ into a critter, prince or princess in the fitting rooms. The store will also launch Cotton On Kids’ November/December campaign, Reindeer Academy, making it the first store in the world to offer the festive Reindeer Academy experience at store level.
Cotton On Kids, which currently operates 282 stores around the world, including online, announced it has plans to increase its footprint to almost 300 stores globally this financial year.
According to Cotton On, during this growth, New Zealand will remain a market focus for the brand.
Five stores will open in the country before Christmas including Sylvia Park in October, a second flagship at Capital Gateway and a clearance store at Fashion Island in November, as well as Hamilton The Base Shopping Mall Flagship in December and Whangarei, which will see a Kids within an existing Cotton On location.
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